Domingo Liotta

Domingo Santo Liotta, MD (born November 29, 1924) is a pioneer of heart surgery, creator of multiple cardiac prostheses including the first total artificial heart used in a human being.

Domingo Santo Liotta son of Italian immigrants, was born in the city of Diamante, Entre Rios, Argentina on November 29, 1924. He completed his elementary school at his hometown at "Independencia School", and his high school at the "Justo Jose de Urquiza School" in Concepcion del Uruguay, Entre Rios.

In 1949, he graduated as a Medical Doctor at National University of Córdoba (Argentina). He received a doctorate in Medicine and Surgery in 1953. In 1955, he developed a technique for early diagnosis of tumors in the pancreas and ampulla of Vater (Pour le diagnostic des tumeurs du pancreas: La duodenographie hypotonique. Lyon Chirurgical, 1955). Liotta continued his medical career at the University of Lyon (France) at the "Pierre Mallet-Guy's" General Surgery Service. Then, he trained in thoracic and cardiac surgery, with Professors Paul Santy and Pierre Marion in Lyon France. His early works in the artificial heart are from 1958 in Córdoba, Argentina, where he developed an early prototype successfully used in small animals. After publishing the results of his studies, Dr. Liotta was hired at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas as Director of the Artificial Heart Program by Dr. Michael E. DeBakey in 1961.

1961(December): First conception of the prolonged mechanical assist circulation in the treatment of Cardiogenic Shock Postcardiotomy.

1963 (July 19): Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) in a patient in cardiogenic shock postcardiotomy, Domingo Liotta and E. Stanley Crawford at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. First clinical use. The original clinical prototype is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C..

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